Foolish Pleasure

It was racing’s last Golden Age, the decade of the 1970s, which produced the last three Triple Crown winners whose names are etched in the pantheon of Thoroughbred greats. But in between Secretariat, Seattle Slew, and Affirmed, 40 years ago, came a 3-year-old whose champion freshman campaign had been the equal of any other, and whose name plays out today in dimmer lights due to timing and circumstance out of his control.

Foolish Pleasure in Belmont Park's winner's circle after taking the Champagne Stakes with jockey Jacinto Vasquez on December 18, 1974.

Blood-Horse Library

Foolish Pleasure arriving at Hialeah in 1975.

Blood-Horse Library

John L. Greer's unbeaten Foolish Pleasure, Champion 2 year old in North America in 1974, gallops on the backstretch at Hialeah to get ready for the Flamingo and the Triple Crown events later in the spring.

Bob Coglianese/NYRA

Foolish Pleasure, with Jacinto Vasquez up, working a mile in 1:37 at Aqueduct in 1975.